Page 98 of The Knights of Gaia

“And representing the Metamorph Knights is Jareth Mars!” the loudspeaker announced. “Jareth is only seventeen years old, but don’t let his age fool you. He is as strong as a bull!”

Asher, Dutch, and nearly everyone else in the audience roared in appreciation as the enormous Knight in gold armor took a bow.

“He can’t be only seventeen,” Bronte said with big eyes. “Just look at the size of him.”

Dutch smirked at her. “It’s not too late to switch sides, Bronte.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she gripped her purple flag firmly. “I don’t switch sides,” she bit out, her lips tight.

“Jareth’s powers are supernatural strength and shifting into a really big bull that can break through nearly anything,” Kylie read from the magazine.

Dutch grinned, obviously thrilled at the possibility of Jareth breaking things.

“Subtle,” I commented.

“There’s nothing subtle about were-bulls or people who like to watch them fight,” Dutch said with glee.

I couldn’t have agreed more.

“Let the first match begin!” the loudspeakers declared.

CHAPTER4

BROKEN

“Hey, we should totally take this quiz!” Kylie told me and Bronte.

She was looking through the magazine as we waited for the next match to begin. The Sorcerer Nala, aka the Crimson Knight, had just defeated the Alchemist Altair Laurent. And before that, the Elf Ainsley Kane had surprised everyone by defeating the Metamorph Jareth Mars. Well,nearlyeveryone. Bronte hadn’t been surprised at all.

“What kind of quiz?” I asked.

Kylie peered over the top of her magazine. “You answer a bunch of questions, and then it tells you which of the Knights’ Tribes you belong to. Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” Her gaze dipped to the page. “Ok, first question. You’re asked to bake a cake for a friend’s birthday. What flavor do you make? A: Chocolate Cake? B: Strawberry Cake? C: Vanilla Cake? Or D: Cheesecake?”

“I’m not sure how this quiz can accurately guess your Tribe if the questions are all like that,” I chuckled.

“Yeah, what do cake flavors have to do with magic?” Bronte agreed.

Kylie shook the magazine at us. “This quiz is meant to be a fun distraction, girls,nota scientific study.”

“Ok, then I pick vanilla,” Bronte told her.

Kylie scribbled down her answer, then her gaze slid across to me. “Savannah?”

“Chocolate,” I said. When in doubt about anything, the answer was always chocolate.

“What is your favorite season?” Kylie read from the magazine quiz. “A: Summer? B: Autumn? C: Winter? D: Spring?”

We continued answering the quiz’s silly questions to pass the time. At around question thirty-six, the trumpets called out through the speakers, signaling the start of the next match. It was between our very own mentor, the Nymph Eris Bentley, and the Dreamweaver Orion Knox, both eighteen-year-old Knights.

“Hey, it says here that Eris wields the power of air magic,” Kylie read from her magazine.

“She can also apparently fly,” I commented as Eris shot up into the air to avoid a swing from Orion’s staff.

She landed on the far side of the Oval, but Orion was already right there beside her. He swung his staff again, and this time, she didn’t have time to fly out of the way.

The audience gasped in awe as Orion knocked her to the ground.

“Orion is a teleporter,” Bronte said, eyes locked on the open magazine in her hands. “That’s pretty cool.”

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